On July 4th, 2006, I embarked on a quest to become the pre-eminent American portrait painter of the 21st century. This blog chronicles that journey. With apologies to Joan Didion, I call it THE YEAR OF MAGICAL PAINTING.

Thursday, October 31, 2013

"We better than this shit right here."

Moving to Troy has been bad for my health. I don't walk nearly as much as I used to in New York and I've swelled up to a frightening degree. Sometimes, now, when I write emails to my children I sign off lovingly as "Big Papi."

But the real Big Papi is David Ortiz. MVP of this year's Series with an amazing stat line, and star of all three Sox Series wins in the recent era. Here's an excerpt from his now famous Game 4, 6th inning impromptu address to the team in the dugout ...

“We don’t get here every day. Let’s fucking relax and play the game the way we know how. We better than this shit right here. Let’s loosen up. Let’s play the game we do.”

Me? After hearing that, I'd certainly hit a home run the next time I was at the plate. Here, courtesy of the Daily Beast, are some numbers ...

4 walks in game six. 3 were intentional.

19 times on base, in 25 plate appearances against the Cardinals.

37 years old, third oldest World Series MVP.

.688 batting percentage with 11 hits in 16 at bats. (Record is .750 by Billy Hatcher.)

.465 career batting average in World Series.

2 home runs, and 6 RBIs.

1 Carlos Beltran rib bruised after robbing Ortiz of a grand slam.

3 World Series won with the Red Sox in 10 years.

0 curses in his MVP acceptance speech. He did say “beep” in an act of self-censorship.

1 Awesome beard.

Not to mention his address to the people of Boston after the bombing of the Marathon. Part of which went: "This is our fucking town."